Book Review US Airborne Tanks - Roberts

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by von Poop, Apr 1, 2021.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    US Airborne Tanks, 1939–1945

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    Charles C Roberts JR.
    Frontline Books
    Pages: 152
    Illustrations: Approximately 100 black and white illustrations
    ISBN: 9781526785022
    Published: 2nd March 2021

    'Tanks' plural is a bit of a misnomer, as it's about the Locust really. I mean, that's essentially the vehicle that fits the title.

    Enjoyed this one.

    A pretty breakneck run through of airborne armour in general, with an M22/Locust core.
    It has a slightly robotic authorial style, a touch clipped & descriptive, but that's no really bad thing in what's a technical sort of survey.
    Relies heavily on US 'TM' Technical manuals, but as the author is involved with a museum collection that shares his name ( ROBERTS ARMORY ) he's able to qualify most things with a comment or photograph taken from their own accessible example. (I think we can safely assume the M22 engine is a bit of a bastard to work on...) I'm sure it's a facility many writers would love to have & 'Roberts Collection' pics are very present.

    After a decent technical/descriptive run-through on Locust, he moves onto the 151st Airborne Tank Company & 28th Airborne Tank Battalion.
    I suspect this is where his real enthusiasm lies. Much of it is plainly a compilation/transcription of stuff from unit training diaries, but there's plenty of name detail & it's all accompanied by great contemporary serviceman's photos, with a detail or two on local mods to the machinery.

    It's a lightish book which I ploughed through in a morning. Touches on UK, Japanese & Russki efforts (Would love to see the 'after' picture of a Soviet Amphibious tank about to hit the water after dropping from a Tupolev...), but it's really one for the Locust-interested. It's not the dripping-with-exhaustive-detail book a certain member would produce :unsure:, but it's a pretty worthy job in itself. (Just looked at Mr Roberts other books. Hadn't realised he'd done that Higgins Boat one. Might have to give that a whirl on the strength of this.)



    As a final comment - think we're living in some sort of golden age for book production values.
    I've had one dreadfully bound/reproduced book recently, but the vast majority of modern ones I've encountered, from 'Professional' to self-published are of a really decent quality. Nice picture reproduction, quality papers etc. There's the slight worry that it's a response to the pressure of digital versions (though it could also be that the need for crisp Kindle versions actually raises the print quality), but something has happened, and I like it.

    Cheers to Frontline Books for the review copy.
    ~A
     
    Don Juan, Dave55, TTH and 1 other person like this.
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Now recalled.
    Not quite 'after', but who wants to see a load of drowned/smashed Russki squaddies anyway...

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    TTH, Owen and 4jonboy like this.

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